Bon jour y como esta?

To celebrate big-big-big five-oh b-days this year rick and i are spending four days in paris and 10 in barcelona - leaving thursday. we've been to paris before, will stay in the same cute studio of miss naomi benamy near the slightly menacing voltaire statue in the 3rd arrondissement, greatly situated again - wondering what he's thinking - and then south to barcelona staying near the beach, near the ramblas - where we've never been. Huge trip, ought to be relaxing, noting our milestones, mileposts, markers, decades, diamond anniversaries, 7th wedding anniversary, celebrating, eating, walking tons in our keens, enjoying sights, sounds, smells, views, peoples, cultures, foods, crafts, churches, etc.

I hope to post more frequently when i return, but have been otherwise occupied trying to earn money and enjoying the nice weather here. i have lots of crafts projects to post, wip's, naturally sewn, sustainable, for home and us. take care ~jeannine

inside these pages

Sew Hip is just a baby magazine-wise, started this past October and is published out of Britain. Lucky me I stumbled across it in the vast crafts magazine section at Barnes & Noble. I had a hot $10 gift card in my hand (thx Melissa) and after a pre-dawn drive up to Bellingham to help my husband make a breakfast catering delivery I wanted a treat. I spent $10 on a single magazine, imported yes and pricey. The publishing business is in such flux and so crowded, but I hope this one sticks around. There is lots of good stuff in just this issue alone. Here are two projects taken from there.

I needed an Apron. Instructions and some pattern piece templates were included in the magazine which was very cool and rare. The templates were to be enlarged 200% and barely fit at Kinko's 17"x35" paper. All went well with a few exceptions. Problems occurred with some fuzziness in instructions regarding the joining pieces (huh?) and a pattern error in the length of the lining. I handled the joining pieces wrong and had to rip out stitching and guess and re-do. I should have caught it but was following instructions to the T. The 44" lining piece should have been about 29", so the 2nd ruffle attached to XL lining grazed my ankles. It was absurd but funny. Lessons learned regarding reading thru the pattern and understanding it, and knowing they make mistakes too.


I am working with my own fabric stash which has grown oversized. Their retro fabric choices in reds, pinks, and yellows are super cute and kitcheny, but mine is cute too. also I changed the bow in the back to a skinny tie that wraps around my waist so I can tuck a towel into the waist if needed.


Felt Pillow Cover
i am working now on covering a small pillow for the living room inspired by this one above created by Betz White and also in Sew Hip, an article about wool felt. Betz White's pillow is so fun I wanna p-- my pants. she used felt and recycled wool from sweaters or something to look like the morning's breakfast. A project like this copying one of my niece's colorful drawings would be alot of fun.

For my pillow though, inspired by a favorite print above and my husband's found recyled graphic poster (below), I will cut similar shapes and colors from recycled post-consumer kuninfelt.com felt bought in large squares available at joann fabrics.

Felt edges don't require any fixing so they don't ravel all over the place. This means more fun. Also felt is shapeable. I am using inexpensive polyester kuninfelt.

the start

hello.

My name is Jeannine and like a new day I don't know what a new blog will bring, nor what I will put in it. But I am having fun learning about it, enjoying some other blogs and experimenting on my own. I have not posted a bad blog nor a good one, yet. Yay! I don't want to disappoint anyone, but I will. I do want to convey something about textiles and fabric and sewing as this is the subject I know most. I will try to post great photos of textiles and sewing as I see there is room for this. Hopefully the subject matter has plenty of room for exploring, A-Z, 1-infinity. Enjoy your day...